Cherokee Run

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These Thoroughbreds are among the few to achieve feats of glory at the races and have gotten the opportunity to pass their genes on to the generations that follow. Read the full feature in the October 18, 2014 issue of TBH.
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Indian Legend registered the first stakes win of her career when she outlasted prohibitive favorite Tar Heel Mom by a nose following a long stretch duel in the $250,000 My Juliet at Philadelphia's Parx Racing May 28.

Cherokee Run, a champion sprinter who went on to become a successful stallion, has been pensioned from stallion duty at Sheikh Mohammed's Darley near Lexington because of fertility problems and lameness issues.

In a departure from the first four sessions of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, in which broodmares or broodmare prospects were the session sale toppers, the highest-priced offering sold Nov. 7 was a weanling, a son of Giant's Causeway out of the winning Dixieland Band mare Queen's Music, who brought $310,000.

Millennium Farms announced Nov. 6 that Zanjero, the leading money-earner by Cherokee Run with over $1.6 million, will join its stallion roster for the 2009 breeding season. Zanjero will stand for a fee of $10,000 live foal.

Darley America has announced the stud fees for its 16 stallions for the 2009 breeding season. All stallions, with the exception of Street Cry, Elusive Quality, and E Dubai, have had their fees reduced from their 2008 levels.

War Pass, last year's unbeaten champion 2-year-old male and multiple grade I winner who was injured in April of this year, has been retired to stud to William S. Farish's Lane's End Farm near Versailles, Ky.

Chelokee, who dislocated his right front ankle May 2 during the Alysheba Stakes (gr. III) on the Kentucky Oaks day undercard at Churchill Downs, continues to be on the improve at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, according to Dr. Larry Bramlage.

Chelokee, who suffered a dislocated right front ankle during the running of the May 2 Alysheba Stakes (gr. III) at Churchill Downs, has "at least a 50-50 chance" of survival, according to prominent equine surgeon Larry Bramlage.

Nick and Jaqui de Meric will have a special rooting interest in this year's Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I). Recapturetheglory, who will be running for the roses May 3 at Churchill Downs after capturing the Illinois Derby (gr. II) by four lengths, is a graduate of the couple's Florida-based pinhooking program.

Unlike his sire and champion sprinter Cherokee Run, Recapturetheglory seems to improve with distance. There is not a lot to predict stamina on either side of the Illinois Derby's winners pedigree, but on the dam's side there is a source of stamina that may manifest itself on Kentucky Derby day.

They finished one-two in a Feb. 20 allowance race, separated by just a neck, and on March 29, Run Sully Run and Sporting Art will have a rematch in the $150,000 Bulleit Bourbon Palm Beach Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Gulfstream Park.

Robert LaPenta's Eclipse Award-winning War Pass, champion 2-year-old in 2007, will make his first start since an emphatic victory in the Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) when he runs in a $60,000 allowance event at Gulfstream Park Feb. 24.

Robert LaPenta's undefeated Eclipse champion War Pass continued to prep for his seasonal debut when he worked a bullet half-mile in :46.80 at Palm Meadows training center Feb. 2. Anak Nakal and Tale of Ekati also worked.

The previous successes of Cherokee Run's progeny seem now to have been merely building momentum toward the weekend of Oct. 6-7 that arrived with almost tsunami force. Juvenile War Pass delivered a dominating performance to capture the Champagne Stakes (gr. I) and 3-year-old Zanjero took his earnings past the $1 million mark.

With Curlin around, Zanjero will never be the star of Steve Asmussen's highly successful stable, but the Winchell Thoroughbreds' 3-year-old colt has enjoyed a tremendously productive sophomore season. He punctuated his year by exceeding the $1 million mark in earnings with a convincing victory in the $510,600 Indiana Derby (gr. II) at Hoosier Park on the night of Oct. 6.

Indian Flare, a 5-year-old filly trained by Bobby Frankel and owned by Juddmonte Farms, died after apparently fracturing her pelvis in the running of Sunday's Ballerina Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga Race Course, according to track veterinarian Anthony Verderosa.

Juddmonte Farms' favored Indian Flare found a little bit extra when she needed it most Sunday to beat Oprah Winney by a half-length in the 150,000 Vagrancy Handicap (gr. II) for fillies and mares at Belmont Park.

Runaway Groom, who beat the year's three U.S. classic winners in the 1982 Travers Stakes (gr. I), was euthanized June 8 at Dr. Tom Simon's Vinery near Lexington because of complications from the infirmities of old age.

Michael Matz sent out Chelokee to win the inaugural Barbaro Stakes, a Pimlico race named after the deceased winner of the 2006 Kentucky Derby and Roy and Gretchen Jackson, the owners of Barbaro, made the winner's circle presentation to Matz.

Trainer Steve Asmussen sent Arkansas Derby (gr. II) winner Curlin and stablemates Zanjero and Reporting for Duty for a final Kentucky Derby prep over the Polytrack surface at Lexington's Keeneland Racecourse on Monday, April 23.

Unbridled Sidney, ridden by Corey Lanerie, rocketed to the front and never looked back en route to a 1 1/4-length victory in Friday's $285,000 Cherokee Run Breeders' Cup on the turf at Churchill Downs.

Elusive Quality, who stands at Sheikh Mohammed's Darley at Jonabell near Lexington, will retain the same $100,000 fee that he first stood for the year after his son, Smarty Jones, nearly made off with the 2004 Triple Crown.